[em-bee]

yes, that makes sense. however i call that staffing, not recruiting. recruiting should always lead to a direct hire by the client company.

i guess the important part for any job seeker is to know the distinction and be aware of the benefits and downsides of each. and when talking to a recruiter to make clear which one this is.

staffing agencies have their place and can be an advantage in some situations. depending on what you are looking for. in the US in particular they may be able to provide continuous insurance (just a guess, i don't actually know). another advantage may be permanent employment with the agency. (again, i don't know how this is in the US, but due to stronger labor protection it is more likely in germany.)

when you are employed with a staffing agency, it is clear that they are responsible for your salary, and whatever they may be able to negotiate with the client is only incidentally related. you have to consider that they take a risk. if the client defaults or they don't have work for you they may still pay you (again at least in germany they have to).

when i hire that is the way i'd like to operate, but mainly because i want to build my own team and only offer staffing services only as an alternative to doing projects as an agency. i like to give them a fixed monthly salary, and when i have no client work for them i have internal projects they can work on. (which is the point, to earn enough money so that we can spend part of the time on our own products). but that requires that i take a large cut on what i get from the employees work. and any raise they get is based on their overall performance and not on what i can negotiate with a particular client.

the above example seems to be the result of a misunderstanding of what the role of the recruiter here is. (and it may well be the recruiters fault for misrepresenting that)

so again, when talking to a recruiter, make that relationship clear up front and get it in writing if need be, or bail out if the contract is not with who you expect it to be.

[sirsinsalot]

There isn't so much of a distinction in the UK. Even where it is FTE, the recruiter can still contract with the hiring party to make the same effective leverage as in what you call staffing.

It's less common, but they'll insert themselves as a middleman whereever they can.

At my last job, the recruiter managing the contract and FTE coders flew in on a private helicopter and gifted the office manager a Rolex. Wish I was joking.

[em-bee]

wow, in germany that kind of bribery is illegal if it is against the interests of the company.

but i do not understand how the recruiter can skim off the raise if the employee is contracted directly with the client. i mean, sure they can make a contract to get a cut, say 10% of the employees salary, so when the employee gets a raise, the recruiter gets more too. but negotiating a raise and then keeping that secret from the employee should only be possible if the employee is only contracted with the recruiter and not with the client directly.